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As most know, the Steelers have gone to a zone blocking scheme this year.

If Todd Haley had his way, the offense would have used zone blocking in his first season as coordinator in 2012.

“I was excited about it last year, but for various reasons we just couldn’t get to a point where we could fully commit to it,’’ Haley told me. “We practiced it in the offseason. We really didn’t get to training camp, maybe a couple plays here and there.”

Haley did not go into details as to why they could not fully commit to it, but two possible reasons are that the players did not suit it and perhaps the line coach last year, Sean Kugler, either was lukewarm to it or not familiar enough with outside zone run-blocking to implement it.

“We just couldn’t get full commitment to it across the board,’’ Haley said.

As head coach in Kansas City in 2010, the Chiefs led the league in rushing with 164.2 yards rushing behind the outside zone run-blocking. Jamaal Charles rushed for 1,467 yards with a hefty 6.4-yard average per carry that season for the Chiefs. Pittsburgh native Bill Muir coached that line and at 70 is now retired.

Muir and Haley did not commit totally to the zone run-blocking, however, they still used some power blocking or double-team schemes Steelers fans are used to seeing. They will do that here as well.

“The year I was there, we ran the ball pretty good, but doing both,’’ Haley said. “We weren’t like the Texans, who are strictly an outside zone team. We had some diversity. We ran an inside gap scheme and outside zone.

“I think you have to do both. They compliment each other. And [the Steelers have] always been traditionally one of the best inside gap teams. That’s a strength. Last year, the only reason it wasn’t a strength is because that’s all we did and everybody in the building knew we were doing it. Then you better overmatch them and if you’re not overmatching them you’re not going to get what you want.”

The Steelers struggled to run the ball effectively last season while employing a committee approach to the tailback spot.

Part of the reason for that was necessity since the Steelers couldn’t keep a back healthy long enough to become the feature back. Even when the backs were healthy, though, the Steelers went with multiple players in the backfield. Running backs coach Kirby Wilson would like to avoid that this season.

“You would love to have a back who can play first down through third down,” Wilson said, via Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “That’s always the best. Now, you have players who can spell a starter, then you have situational players that have strengths in other areas, put for the most part you always want a guy who is there first through third.”

Since we’ve got a good idea of what Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman can do, the most obvious candidate to end the shuffling in the backfield is rookie Le’Veon Bell. It might be a tall order for a rookie back to jump into that role right off the bat, especially when Dwyer, Redman and LaRod Stephens-Howling are on hand to keep Bell from being overwhelmed. Preseason action and the first few weeks of the regular season will give some insight into whether that turns out to be the case, but it seems likely that the team will still be running by committee a little bit longer.